‘This Room’
by Imtiaz Dharker
What do we associate with
rooms?
What could the room
be a metaphor for?
What does
this image
remind you
of?
This room is breaking out
of itself, cracking through
its own walls
in search of space, light,
Does the poet
see the room as
a positive or
negative thing?
empty air.
What is it
called
when an
object is
given
human
characte
ristics?
What do we associate with rooms?
• The place where we live.
• Private places that belong to us and where
we belong.
• Rooms can separate people.
• They have walls that confine us.
• We shut out other people from our rooms.
The room as a metaphor
The room could be a metaphor for culture.
Cultures are often associated with national
boundaries.
Language, religion, race, social customs
etc can form invisible walls keeping others
from understanding what happens in the
‘room’.
In which direction are things
moving?
The bed is lifting out of
its nightmares.
From dark corners, chairs
are rising up to crash through clouds.
Is the
movemen
t into light
or
darkness?
Why did the poet use the
idea of moving both into
the light and upwards?
This is the time and place
to be alive:
What is our
daily
furniture?
Could the furniture be
the beliefs or
everyday objects that
clutter our lives?
when the daily furniture of our lives
stirs, when the improbable arrives.
Movement gathers
pace.
Pots and pans bang together
in celebration, clang
Past the crowd of garlic, onions, spices,
What tense is used? Why?
Fly by the ceiling fan.
No one is looking for the door.
Why is ‘no one looking for the
door’? What does that usually
mean?
Are there any
words that rhyme?
Can you spot any
onomatopoeia?
• Why is no one “looking for the door”?
Presumably, because there are now so
many different ways of leaving the room,
without using the conventional route.
We are not told what is precisely
happening, only that it is
something unforeseen and unlikely
(improbable) – so the reader can
only speculate about what is
bringing about this transformation.
In all this excitement
I’m wondering where
What does this suggest?
I’ve left my feet, and why
Speaker left
wondering what it
means to be swept up
in excitement.
My hands are outside, clapping.
One's sense of self is also confused - we say
sometimes that we are all over the place, and
the poet depicts this literally, as well - she cannot
find her feet (a common metaphor for gaining a
sense of purpose or certainty) and realizes that
her hands are not even in the same room - and
have taken on a life of their own, applauding.
Could the poem be about the excitement of
moments when things change? At these
moments our surroundings seem to share our
excitement – or it’s as if they do. We do not
know the cause of this joyful explosion, but it
seems to be bound up with personal happiness
and fulfilment - it might be romantic love, but it
could be other things: maternity, a new job,
artistic achievement, almost anything that is
genuinely and profoundly life-changing.
More to think about…..
• In the poem our homes and possessions
symbolise our lives and ambitions in a
limiting sense, while change and new
opportunities are likened to space, light
and “empty air”, where there is an
opportunity to move and grow. Like
Walcott's Love After Love it is about
change and personal growth - but at an
earlier point, or perhaps at repeated points
in one's life.
• What do you think the poet means by imagining
a room breaking out of itself?
• How does the poet suggest ideas of change and
opportunity?
• This is a very happy poem - how does Imtiaz
Dharker suggest her joy in it?
• What is the effect of the images in the poem - of
rooms, Does the poem give us any clues as to
why this furniture and crockery bursting into life?